Book Awards

This book is a timeline of NZ’s history starting from when the Maori arrived through to the Pakeha arrival, the right for women to vote, to now. It is very informative and a good resource for children wanting to learn about NZ. I liked this book as it was easy to read and had good pictures,

5 stars

Reviewed by Molly Morgan from Karori and Karori Normal School , 11 years old

Wow! The finalists have been announced for this years New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and what an amazing line up! It’s so great to be able to celebrate our wonderful home grown talent in Aotearoa so check out some of these books. Oh and don’t forget you can read some of these books as part of the Hell Pizza Challenge and get stamps on your pizza wheels. Yum!

Love Joy Cowley’s books and the snake and lizard series is one of my favourites. Check out their latest hilarious adventures and escapades in “Helper and Helper”.

Tania Roxborogh’s latest book “My New Zealand Story: Bastion Point” is a great way to explore New Zealand history from the perspective of a young girl called Erica Tito, whose parents decide that instead of going on their usual summer holiday they will join the protesters at Bastion Point. A moving and insightful account of real life events through the eyes of a fictitious young girl.

Sent to live with his grandmother in Hastings after his father is jailed, Matt becomes the victim of bad friends and false accusations. Sent off to a military-style school camp in the wilds of lake Waikaremoana, Matt is once again in trouble. Find out more about Matt and the friendships he makes by reading “Sunken Forest” by Des Hunt. This popular author will also be coming to Wellington Central Library on the 11th of July as part of the Beyond the Page festival, more about that on the blog soon!

“The Discombobulated Life of Summer Rain” by Julie Lamb tells the story of Summer, who loves to make people laugh, it’s how she fits in. Living with her crazy family she is surprised when Juanita suddenly wants to be her friend… Find out more about Summer and her friends and family when you read this book.

Ever had an imaginary friend? Ben has one called Vincent in “The Impossible Boy”, who has helped Ben survive in the war torn streets which are his home. But can an imaginary friend become real? How powerful is Ben’s imagination. A beautiful and powerful book to immerse yourself in, by Julie Lamb.

So many more books up for awards so expect more blogs soon. Other categories include: non-fiction, illustration, te reo Māori, picture book, and first book award. So keep those peepers peeled for more exciting reads.

Early this morning the finialst titles were announced for the 2016 Children’s Book Awards. These awards seek to find the best books written fro children in New Zealand in the last year. There are 6 categories – Young Adult, Illustration, Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Te Reo Māori. There are also children’s choice awards for each of the 6 categories – finalists that are voted for by children rather than the book award judges.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Monday 8th August. You can find out more about the awards at the Booksellers website.

Have you grabbed your pizza wheel yet? Hell Pizza are one of the big sponsors of the awards. Until stocks last, you can grab a pizza wheel from the library. Get each section clicked for each book you read, and once you have completed a wheel (7 clicks) you can exchange the wheel for a pizza. Yum!

“This is not a story of cotton candy-candy capers. It is a story of gruesome horrors, awful amputations and ghastly ghouls…….. It’s a rough life at sea, so grab a bucket and hold onto your guts. This is going to get really ugly.”

“William and Melissa have been roped into helping their hippie grandparents fix up their holiday home. They’ll have no electricity, no cellphone reception, and only each other for company. As far as they are concerned, this is NOT a holiday.”

“It’s New Zealand, 1914, and World War One has just broken out in Europe. William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, refuses to fight and gets arrested. Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields, but their journeys there are very different.”

“When Mr Patel asks his class what they’d like to be when they grow up, Finn chooses ‘Superhero’. Finn knows what he needs: superpowers, a hideout, an outfit and….oh, yeah, to save someone’s life. Impossible? Not with a sidekick like the amazing Brian.”

“Wildbloode the Wicked is the fiercest, most ferocious pirate in all the seven seas. All she wants is for her nephew to follow in her footsteps. But Finnigan’s not interest-all he wants to do is dance!”

Pirates, orcas and penguins leap from the pages of the 22 books picked as finalists in the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

2015 is the 25th year of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and the judges have just announced a great line up of finalists. These are the best books written by New Zealanders in the last year, so best you go and grab them off the library shelves.

Do you want to help choose the winners in the NZ Children’s Book Awards? Be part of the Children’s Choice voting and have your chance to vote for the NZ books you think are the best.

At a lavish ceremony on the evening of 15th June, the winners of the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards were announced. The winners are the best books, according to Librarians, that have written and illustrated by New Zealanders in the last year.

(LIANZA – Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa)

We already know that you love to read. We also already know that you love pizza. So we love this idea that combines both reading and pizza, and we think you’ll LOVE it too.

Every year LIANZA picks and awards the best books for children and young adults that has been published in New Zealand (or by a New Zealander) in the last year.

One of the key supporters of the book awards is Hell Pizza…

(In case you’re curious, here’s how it happens: First the judges (a group of librarians from across NZ) receive a copy of almost every book that has been published, and they read them all. Then they pick the best 5 books in the following groups: illustration, junior fiction, young adult fiction, non-fiction, te reo Māori. They release the list of these finalist books and, finally, they pick a winner for each of the groups.)

Recently LIANZA released the list of finalist books. There are some amazing titles on there and we recommend all of them. We’re not sure how they will possibly pick the winners, but they plan to announce them on June 15th.

As part of the book awards the judges want to reward you for reading.

Visit your local Wellington City Library and grab yourself a Hell Pizza Wheel from the counter. Your pizza wheel will get clicked every time you check out and read a library book (one click per book). Once all 7 segments on the pizza wheel have been clicked, you can take it to your local Hell Pizza shop and exchange it for a 333 pizza from their HELLthy menu range. Once you have completed a wheel you can start on another, and another… until we run out of pizza wheels.

Yes, you read that correctly – read 7 books and get a delicious pizza. So what are you waiting for?